This invention pertains to a coil handler device. More particularly, the invention pertains to a coil manipulating and transporting device for grasping, lifting and moving coiled materials.
Many materials are supplied in coiled form. For example, strapping material, such as plastic or steel strap is often supplied in coiled form on, for example, a spool or spindle.
In handling coiled strapping material, most strapping machines require that the coils be positioned on a strapping dispenser with the longitudinal axis of the coil in either a horizontal orientation or a vertical orientation. That is, the coil is mounted to the dispenser so that the material feeds from a top or bottom of the coil and so that the coiled material can rotate around a spindle or axis positioned in a horizontal orientation. Alternately, the coil can be mounted so that the material is fed from a side of the coil with the coil axis in a vertical orientation.
Coiled strapping material is often quite heavy and can be bulky, vis-a-vis storage and handling. Many such coils can weigh as much as one hundred pounds or more. As such, it is often difficult to grasp, manipulate and transport the coil to position it in either the horizontal or vertical orientation. Typically, the coil must be manipulated manually to position it on the machine. Moreover, when the coils arc stacked on one another this difficulty in grasping and manipulating the coil is exacerbated.
Coil grasping and manipulating devices are known; however, these devices are large, motorized equipment items akin to a vehicle. Moreover, because of the overall sizes of such devices, their respective costs are likewise high, thus limiting the ability of the “small” volume user to justify purchase and use of such a handling device.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a coil handler that permits grasping, manipulating and transporting coiled material. Desirably, such a device is configured so that it can “straddle” a coil or stack of coils, grasp a coils and remove it from the coil stack. More desirably, such a handler grasps the coil at a plurality of radially spaced locations, but can hold the coil securely with only one location grasped and secured. Most desirably, such a device can be used to grasp a coil with the coil axis in either a horizontal orientation or a vertical orientation, transport the coil and load the coil onto a machine in the orientation for use.